It’s funny. This International break had to be one during which I wouldn’t have written anything as my policy is that if I have nothing to write, well I don’t. Unfortunately, I am forced to write something but believe me, I wished I wasn’t.

Of course by now you all heard about the news that Robin van Persie will be sidelined for months with the horrible words “tears ankle ligaments” all over the Internet this morning.

As as I said on Saturday, I was watching the game as I picked it over the Ireland-France one because of Robin and was first upset to see the Italian defender tackling like that after only 10 minutes in an International friendly and then devastated to see Robin stretchered off and in pain. In a way you can’t blame Chiellini, many complain that friendlies are taken lightly and should be reduced and then let’s face it, he took plenty of the ball.

You Need To Be Strong, Robin

As I said in the title, I don’t think of a player who suffered an injury or a team – Arsenal – which will suffer after losing a key player, I instead think about the man, a man who was doing incredibly well in his daily job, scoring in almost all games, looking forward to a long and fascinating season, having the World Cup as epilogue.

And then this.

It seems he will be out until March, maybe more considering you need time to come back strong after a long injury. It’s sad, frustrating, but he needs to be strong. He just needs to look at Eduardo, Rosicky, Nasri, all players who suffered injuries for Arsenal to understand that he can be back and why not, stronger than before.

And Indeed, We Now Need to Adapt

This morning, Steve, our new team member, published a poll in which he asked who shall start up front for us during Robin’s absence and I was surprised to see many not believing Nicklas Bendtner is up to the task. I understand he’s injured so maybe that’s the reason, but I believe we need him more than many want us to believe. Just for the record, you guys voted for Eduardo and Vela to lead the forward line.

Eduardo and Carlos Vela, according to our readers

Anyway back to Nick. You can’t expect to go on such a long season, against different style of defenders without him. He’s the only striker who provides height and especially strength in the offensive department. Have we forgotten about the amazing game he had against Manchester United at the Emirates last season and how good he did against Ferdinand and Vidic? Then of course we have Eduardo, Carlos Vela and I agree, moving one of the offensive midfielders in a more offensive role.

Eduardo hit two for Croatia in the weekend and speaking of Dudu, please, please, don’t ask me about Liverpool’s bid for him as there is no bid. Stop believing the rubbish you read on The Sun, Daily Mail and all websites/blogs who are exclusively after money. Believe only when you read an interview, a quote, coming from the player, the manager, the chairman, whoever, but stop believing the rubbish where there is no quote whatsoever.

Anyway, I believe Eduardo will see more first team action and I hope Carlos Vela does as well. These two can partner Nicklas up front in a rotation manner and sometimes play together as well, especially when you consider that they seem to be good mates.

Sunderland and Standard Liege Need To Be Experiments

It’s easy to sit down and throw names of who can replace Robin. It’s easy to say let’s move Arshavin up front as he can be a good striker. But it’s not easy until you see it. Sunderland is no longer a tricky away fixture, it’s now a very hard game against a very good team which we need to face without our best striker.

The Champions League game following that is even more important I believe. It’s not a hard game, it’s at the Emirates and that’s the game where experiments shall be done ahead of the next months. I’m not talking about trying a new combination of strikers for 90 minutes, I’m talking about trying three, maybe four different solutions, every 20 minutes or so. I believe that we’re a lot and a lot better than Standard Liege, enough to indeed use their game as an experiment ahead of Chelsea and the rest.

Looking Forward

I wish I could say let’s not be pessimistic as I did at the start of the season but I would be making fun of you if I’d say that this injury will not damage our quest for silverware.

It does and it does it badly. But I trust in Arsene Wenger to find the proper solution to this. Ultimately we may enjoy writing about this and that but it’s up to our manager to take decisions and I want to believe he will be taking the correct ones.